High On Healthy

Richard Zwicky talks with psychologist Dr. Krista Jordan to explore the powerful role of the subconscious in our daily lives and relationships. Dr. Jordan explains that a significant portion of our behavior—including perceptions, judgments, and reactions—operates outside conscious awareness, often driven by evolutionary adaptations and childhood experiences. They discuss the necessity of "dept...

In this episode of High and Healthy , host Richard Zwicky speaks with therapist Wendi Dumbroff to explore why individuals frequently fall into repetitive, unhealthy relationship cycles. Rather than focusing on "fixing" a partner, the discussion highlights the power of self-confrontation and examining one’s own history to understand how childhood experiences unconsciously drive current trig...

In this episode of "High and Healthy," host Richard Zwicky sits down with neuroscientist and Neurable founder Dr. Ramses Alcaide to discuss the revolutionary potential of brain-computer interfaces to measure mental wellness and performance. While traditional wearables track physical metrics like heart rate and steps, Dr. Alcaide highlights the critical gap in tracking our most vital, yet &...

Richard Zwicky speaks with Laura Ramos, founder of Redefine Wellness and Treatment, to explore the often-overlooked mental health struggles of high-achieving individuals. Ramos discusses how many successful professionals use productivity as a coping mechanism, trading emotional and spiritual connection for external validation and wealth—a state she identifies as being "emotionally bankrupt.&#3...

Therapist and practice owner William Schroeder joins host Richard Zwicky to explore the transformative yet complex role of AI in mental health. While AI shows promise in streamlining practice infrastructure—such as handling insurance compliance and claims—Schroeder warns against the "robo-apocalypse" of replacing human therapists with chatbots. They highlight the critical importance of tru...

Richard Zwicky talks with Dr. Christine Moutier, Chief Medical Officer of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), explore the overlap between AI chatbots and mental health crisis intervention. As more people in distress turn to AI for immediate help, Dr. Moutier distinguishes between purpose-built mental health LLMs and broad-use platforms, where AFSP is focusing its energy on risk...

Richard Zwicky and licensed professional counselor Eileen Borski discuss the critical question of whether the brain can learn safety again after experiencing trauma, such as adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and intergenerational trauma. Borski explains that many symptoms, like anxiety or a racing heart, are "flashing yellow lights" indicating a chronically disregulated nervous system,...

Richard Zwicky welcomes practicing therapist Phil Macleod, founder of Thought Reader, discuss the risks of over-relying on generic AI for mental health and decision-making, which Macleod calls "chat AI confusion syndrome". The central concern is that AI, which is fallible and often confirms a user's existing biases with "false confidence," encourages people to outsource their i...

Richard Zwicky and licensed therapist Erin Pash discuss the responsible integration of AI into mental health care, exploring how this emerging technology can enhance—but not replace—human connection in therapy.  Pash advocates for therapists to embrace AI and establish personalized "guard rails" for clients using tools between sessions. When used correctly, AI can be a powerful tool to aid...

Richard Zwicky interviews therapist Alissa Allen to explore the often-misunderstood concept of high-functioning depression. Allen describes this condition as a "high-performance mask" where individuals appear successful and overflow with social and professional commitments while internally battling chronic stress, emotional numbness, and exhaustion. Drawing from her background in neurotheo...

In this episode of High on Healthy, Richard Zwicky and Dr. Sulagna Misra explore the complex intersection of artificial intelligence and healthcare. Dr. Misra highlights the tension between AI's potential for efficiency—such as robotic surgery and data collection—and the critical risks of losing the human relationship essential to healing. They delve into the dangers of AI "hallucinations&...

Richard Zwicky sits down with Dr. Adi Jaffe , a UCLA-affiliated specialist and author of Unhooked , to dismantle the traditional stigma surrounding addiction. Dr. Jaffe shares his powerful journey from a felony conviction to a PhD, arguing that addictive behaviors—ranging from substance abuse to workaholism and digital dependency—are actually adaptive coping mechanisms developed to survive emotion...

High on Healthy explores the "gut-mind" connection with Shirley Billigmeier, the founder of Innergetics. Moving beyond the restrictive rules of traditional diet culture, Shirley discusses how we often lose the biological "eating boundaries" we were born with due to early childhood conditioning and emotional "food noise." She introduces the concept of the hunger scale as a t...

In this insightful episode of High and Healthy, host Richard Zwicky sits down with systemic coach and Breathing Flame founder, Oscar Trelles, to deconstruct the "slow roasting" of modern burnout. Oscar shares his personal journey from running a high-flying global market research firm to a total identity collapse during the pandemic, revealing how consumer culture trains our nervous systems...

Richard Zwicky and licensed marriage and family therapist Zoe Spears, discuss the psychological cost of modern achievement and consumer culture.  They explore how industrialism and capitalism have tied self-worth to productivity and monetary gain, leading many high achievers and perfectionists to struggle with anxiety, burnout, and chronic dissatisfaction.  Spears notes that this pressure is often...

Richard Zwicky interviews social psychologist Dr. Andre Walton, who proposes a provocative redefinition of burnout, asserting that it is primarily caused by  how we think  rather than simply by workload or being restricted to workplace stress.  Dr. Walton explains that burnout stems from "thinking too narrowly," which suppresses the core human drive for creative thought. Adults, trained to...

Richard Zwicky talks with licensed professional counselor Hunter Cook examines "high functioning depression," a silent mental health challenge faced by successful professionals who appear accomplished but internally struggle with chronic stress, anxiety, and emotional disconnection.  Cook explains that this non-clinical phenomenon is often rooted in conditional love, trauma, or societal ex...

Dr. Todd Coleman, an associate professor of bioengineering at Stanford University, explores the profound and literal connection between the stomach and the brain, often referred to as the body's "second brain" due to the approximately 300 million neurons in the GI tract.  Dr. Coleman explains that "gut feelings" are scientifically grounded in the concept of interosception—the s...

Loretta Graziano Breuning, founder of the Inner Mammal Institute, challenges the cultural myth of constant happiness. Drawing on her work examining how "happy chemicals"—dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and endorphins—evolved in animals, Breuning explains that our brains are naturally wired for emotional peaks and valleys, which serve the purpose of survival. She discusses how the pursuit of...

Richard Zwicky speaks with Dr. Jenna Budreau-Roman, a licensed clinical psychologist and founder of Love and Theory, explores the paradox of highly successful people who struggle with imposter syndrome and a sense of conditional self-worth. Dr. Budreau-Roman explains that this often stems from a childhood where identity becomes synonymous with achievement, making worth conditional on performance....

Dr. Jennifer Fraser and Richard Zwicky focus on the subliminal and socially acceptable forms of abuse, such as gaslighting, which many people—including high-achieving professionals—fail to recognize due to a lack of sophisticated vocabulary. The discussion broadens to systemic bullying embedded in culture and politics, analyzing the dangerous "DARVO" (Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offen...

Richard Zwickey interviews Naveen Khalfan , a licensed family therapist and mental health professional at Headspace . The discussion explores the "data gap" in mental health, examining why progress is harder to measure than physical healing and how traditional self-reporting tools often fail to capture the nuances of internal growth. Khalfan shares insights on the rising role of AI in ment...

Richard Zwicky speaks with physician and behavioral change designer Kyra Bobinet to explore why traditional willpower models consistently fail. ] Dr. Bobinet highlights the "data gap" in mental health, arguing that subjective questionnaires fall short of the precision offered by modern brain science. The conversation centers on the habenula —the brain’s "anti-reward" pathway—which...

Dr. Jennifer Fraser and Richard Zwicky introduce the concept of bullying and abuse not as merely a moral or behavioral issue, but as a brain-altering experience and a verifiable physical injury. Dr. Fraser details how extensive neuroscientific research shows that repeated exposure to abuse can cause physical damage, including the demyelination of the corpus callosum, the shrinking of the hippocamp...

In this episode of High on Healthy , host Richard Zwicky sits down with Dr. Justin Jacq ues, founder of the Human Theory Group , to explore the critical need for objective data in mental health treatment. Dr. Jack highlights the limitations of traditional self-reporting—which is often inconsistent and subject to personal bias—and discusses how advanced tools like neurofeedback (qEEG) and natural l...